Jeremy Tooker has long since moved on from his Ritual Roasters co-founding days and set up this café and roaster a few blocks up his old haunts. The roasting operations here took a long time for approvals, and by January 2009 things were finally up and running. While Four Barrel is a partnership with Stumptown's Duane Sorenson, the roasts at Four Barrel don't quite yet seem to measure up to their Stumptown counterparts at first (e.g., the more muted Friendo Blendo versus the more potent Hairbender). But as Four Barrel worked the kinks out, and tried less to be Stumptown and instead its own thing, the roasting has significantly improved.

Four Barrel Coffee is now, finally, and unquestionably one of the best roasters in the Bay Area.

In February 2013, Four Barrel acquired De La Paz from founder Jason Benford with the aim of Four Barrel focusing on single origin coffees while De La Paz focused on blends.